books.google.com - 'If you care about something you have to protect it. If you're lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.' Eleven-year-old Owen Meany, playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire, hits a foul ball and kills his best friend's mother....https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Prayer_for_Owen_Meany.html?id=jbIVtssidwwC&utm_source=gb-gplus-shareA Prayer for Owen Meany

A Prayer for Owen Meany

'If you care about something you have to protect it. If you're lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.'

Eleven-year-old Owen Meany, playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire, hits a foul ball and kills his best friend's mother. Owen doesn't believe in accidents; he believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is both extraordinary and terrifying.

User ratings

5 stars

92

4 stars

31

3 stars

14

2 stars

11

1 star

3

LibraryThing Review

User Review - MaureenCean - LibraryThing

More than a 3, but not enough to round up. Too long. It took me 10 months to read it. I read multiple books at a time and it just wasn't the one I usually wanted to pick up, even though I enjoyed it ...Read full review

LibraryThing Review

User Review - AJBraithwaite - LibraryThing

A 500 page novel that sets up a slam dunk. This was recommended to me by a friend about 15 years ago and I at last got round to reading it this month. Vivid, wonderful writing and a fascinating story ...Read full review

About the author (1990)

John Irving published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968. He has been nominated for a National Book Award three times - winning once, in 1980, for the novel The World According to Garp. He also received an O. Henry Award in 1981 for the short story 'Interior Space'. In 1992, he was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules - a film with seven Academy Award nominations. In 2001, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His most recent novel is Last Night in Twisted River.